Guitar Hero: Metallica is prepared to bring the thunder in a big way. IGN.com and TeamXBox have some interesting previews of the game.
Similar to Guitar Hero: Aerosmith in design, the game is focused around Metallica’s music, style and so forth, and also includes bands that influenced and were influenced by the metal legends. Metallica game looks to offer a ton more content and goodies for fans of the band. The track list is most certainly very impressive and does a good job spanning the band’s career.
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You have the potential of up to four charts you can perform: guitar, bass, drums and vocals. While Metallica’s music is heavy on the complement of rhythm and lead guitars, they are combined into the single guitar track for this package.
The progression has changed a bit since World Tour. Instead of playing gigs, you now work down a grouped list of songs like in the first few titles. However, you no longer need to complete every song to move on. Each venue has a star requirement, and once you’ve earned said number of stars, that venue and its attached songs are unlocked. However, if you just want to jump in and rock out, you’ll find that the Quickplay option starts with every song unlocked this time around.
At its foundation, instead of following the band through its history in the Career Mode, the premise is of a band inspired by Metallica, which then gets a chance to play with them later. Venues in which you perform include locations that Metallica has played before, such as London’s Hammersmith Odeon and Tushino Airfield in Moscow.
Metallica was heavily involved in the creation of the title, and the band wanted to take a different approach from the Aerosmith package. For example, unlike GH: Aerosmith, GH: Metallica presents the band only in its current lineup—drummer Lars Ulrich, guitarist James Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo—without referencing past/departed members, such as previous bassists Cliff Burton (who died in a tour-bus accident) and Jason Newsted.
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The band itself is represented quite well in the game. There’s still that sort of exaggerated look to the Metallica guys like we’ve seen in the other titles, but they look pretty close to the real members and are easily recognizable even out of context. The most impressive bit by far though is the animation sequences that Neversoft has been able to translate from the mo-cap sessions into the game. Everyone’s movements are dead-on, especially Lars’ signature head movements.
GH: Metallica’s most attractive attribute, though, is how much of a treat it will be for players seeking to be challenged. As you’d expect from the band’s song catalog, some of the charts will be incredibly technical. However, the gamemakers are also including an “Expert+” (called “Expert Plus”) difficulty that will push GH vets to a new level—particularly for prospective Lars-alikes. In this mode, you’ll be able to hook up a second drum pedal (with a splitter that takes the input of either pedal and tells the Xbox 360 hardware that a kick note has been played). Neversoft demo’ed this with an incredible performance on a song in which the drum chart was filled with some sections that looked like a wall of kick notes backing the intricate pad combos. While you’ll be able to buy another pedal, those who preorder the game through GameStop will get a second pedal as a reward.
Another new mode being added to the game is called Drum Over which lets you to play a track without any drum notes, allowing you to play whatever you want without penalty. The drum samples are based on the drums for each individual song, so if you can manage to play along correctly, it should theoretically sound just like the album.
Pre-order your Metallica Guitar Hero copy!
The Star Power system in GH: Metallica is also getting an update for when a group of players is collaborating. Each player’s chart indicates the overall Star Power accumulation, but instead of having all players activate it, any player will be able to draw from the meter as needed.
Other special features include new instruments to purchase for your onscreen characters to play (as well as some of the ESP line of instruments); new guitar and bass samples, which will enhance the playback of GH Tunes tracks; and the presentation of “Metallifacts,” trivia tidbits that play after a track to give you historical details on the song you just played.
Every song in the game will have a handful of bonuses attached to them, with one of the biggest being Metallifacts. Here, you watch the song played in the game (you can’t play in this mode) while facts about the band, song and anything else associated with the track pop up on the screen.
In addition to this, all of the Metallica tracks in the game will include some sort of video component. This ranges from well-produced stuff down to handycam footage shot by some fans in a 200-person club with the band playing cranked up to 11. You’ll also find tons of images, lyric sheets, posters, gig notes and pretty much anything else you can think of. If it can be scanned or photographed, you’ll probably find some form of it here. Of course, you’ll also find behind-the-scenes footage and other making-of stuff tossed into the mix.
In addition if you previously purchased and downloaded Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” album for Guitar Hero, the songs will also be enabled for play within the GH: Metallica game.
Official Metallica Guitar Hero trailer:
Tracklist:
Metallica Tracks
All Nightmare Long
Battery
Creeping Death
Disposable Heroes
Dyers Eve
Enter Sandman
Fade To Black
Fight Fire With Fire
For Whom The Bell Tolls
Frantic
Fuel
Hit The Lights
King Nothing
Master of Puppets
Mercyful Fate (Medley)
No Leaf Clover
Nothing Else Matters
One
Orion
Sad But True
Seek And Destroy
The Memory Remains
The Shortest Straw
The Thing That Should Not Be
The Unforgiven
Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Wherever I May Roam
Whiplash
Other Artists
Alice In Chains – No Excuses
Bob Seger – Turn The Page
Corrosion of Conformity – Albatross
Diamond Head – Am I Evil?
Foo Fighters – Stacked Actors
Judas Priest – Hell Bent For Leather
Kyuss – Demon Cleaner
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Tuesdays Gone
Machine Head – Beautiful Mourning
Mastodon – Blood And Thunder
Mercyful Fate – Evil
Michael Schenker Group – Armed and Ready
Motorhead – Ace of Spades
Queen – Stone Cold Crazy
Samhain – Mother of Mercy
Slayer – War Ensemble
Social Distortion – Mommy’s Little Monster
Suicidal Tendencies – War Inside My Head
System of a Down – Toxicity
The Sword – Black River
Thin Lizzy – The Boys Are Back in Town
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